Arrest made in slaying of man who was shot outside his Sunnyside home this week

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An apparent landlord-tenant dispute turned deadly today, as a Sunnyside man was shot in the chest outside his home near the Clove Road on-ramp to the Staten Island Expressway.

Carlos Rivera, 23, fell to the curb at 87 Little Clove Rd. about 8:15 a.m. and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter at Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton.

The gunman fled in the direction of Clove Lakes Park.

Staten Island Advance/Michael OatesPolice comb scene of fatal shooting in Sunnyside yesterday morning.

Tonight, police arrested Ardjent Shaini, 35, of 89 Little Clove Rd., the son of Rivera’s landlord, and charged him with murder. Detectives had fetched Shaini from the Brooklyn auto body shop where he works and questioned him all day at the 120th Precinct station in St. George.
A police source said Rivera’s mother told officers her son had quarreled with Shaini about the lease. According to the source, the mother said that argument, about three weeks ago, included dire threats issued by Shaini.
Neither Rivera’s mother nor the landlord, was available for comment tonight. But a woman answering the door at number 89 who identified herself only as Zoka confirmed that her husband was the man being questioned.
"I don’t know nothing," she said. "And he had nothing to do with any shooting."
She said they have been married for 10 years and have three children.
The charges against Shaini include second-degree murder, criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.
Earlier in the day, yellow crime scene tape cordoned off the street into the evening rush hour, sending traffic into side streets. Detectives collected evidence and interviewed potential witnesses throughout the day. A pile of blankets lay next to the curb, in front of the white sedan where Rivera’s body fell.
Later in the evening, an NYPD vehicle stood sentinel outside the home.
Fran Vicario , 71, who lives on the street with her sister, said they didn’t see anything, but expressed skepticism that the landlord’s family could be connected to the crime.
"They are wonderful, wonderful people. They bake zeppoles and they give us tomatoes," she said.
"There’s no two ways about it, we are so devastated by this, really, really heartbroken," said Ms. Vicario’s sister, who didn’t want to give her name.
Jennifer Perella, 29, who lives on Tioga Street, behind Little Clove Road, said she had taken the day off and was enjoying her coffee when, "I heard gunshots and I looked out the window and I saw a man running down Little Clove Road." Ms. Perella said he wore a black hoodie over his head and was moving fast.
"I was scared. I locked all my doors and windows," she said.
Her next-door neighbor Angelica Iannone, 30, said she frets about crime. "We had two robberies in the area and now this. This is crazy," she said.
Claudia Mennella, who also lives on Tioga Street, said she heard four slow popping sounds early in the morning that "I thought maybe [were] gunshots." She gave a statement to detectives.
The neighbor on the other side of Rivera’s home declined to comment on the shooting.
Several houses down, a man said he was awakened by the sound of three gunshots. He did not know Rivera, he said, and was surprised to hear there had been a murder just doors away.
Another neighbor, who just moved to the area earlier this month, said she’s keeping her 12-year-old son close to their house until she gets word of an arrest in the shooting. "It’s scary," she said.